"Access Denied" on some sites (all browsers)

[joshex]

I'm wondering if anyone else is having the same issue, it's not a palemoon specific problem, but searching on lowes.com or homedepot.com returns an access denied error page. I've tried communicating with said sites about it, they say the same bs every time, remove cookies and cache wait 24 hours and restart.

it only seems to happen when visiting the site from a computer, the search works on a phone (but no one should ever use those insecure devices for any sort of purchasing).

so something is amiss. I did travel with this computer to the UK, and I know they serve access denied pages to anyone trying to view lowes from outside the US, but I've been in the states now for years and have cleared cache etc. and even reinstalled win7 on a new hard drive. I have no idea why my phone can use the search but my computer can't.

I've tried palemoon, and edge

is there a good user agent switcher for palemoon? is anyone else seeing the same problem?

[Mæstro]

Both ironmongers also deny me access through Waterfox as well as Pale Moon if I use a Norse VPN server while really in Germany, but permit me through Pale Moon with a US American one. Changing your user agent does not change your apparent location, which is mostly inferred from the IP address. A trustworthy virtual private network (VPN) offering servers in the USA suits your needs better.

[billmcct]

I have always had trouble with both Lowes and Home Depot on PM.
Can't get images on either site. I have however never encountered an Access Denied.
I have relegated those to r3dfox.

[Moonchild]

The infamous "access denied" is one particular "security" solution employed by mostly larger websites that just flat out sledge-hammer blocks entire global regions and user agents. Basically a numbers game. They are only interested in potential buyers who fall in a particular demographic and they are happy to eat the 5% or so loss in potential sales from people outside of that demographic to not have to deal with what they are considering "potential problem customers". It's discrimination, of course, but a type that's impossible to prove as such.

[River Moon]

I think "Access Denied" is edgesuite.net (aka Akamai). It can be worth playing with the user agent.

My last run-in with this was when trying to renew insurance. The renewal was behind a login with a 2FA emailed code and still they thought it necessary to add even more friction to their business model with the "Access Denied" nonsense.

Anyway, in the end it transpired that it would accept a 147.0 Firefox user agent but not the latest 140.0 ESR.

[joshex]

The infamous "access denied" is one particular "security" solution employed by mostly larger websites that just flat out sledge-hammer blocks entire global regions and user agents. Basically a numbers game. They are only interested in potential buyers who fall in a particular demographic and they are happy to eat the 5% or so loss in potential sales from people outside of that demographic to not have to deal with what they are considering "potential problem customers". It's discrimination, of course, but a type that's impossible to prove as such.

I figured as such. still looking for a work around, I got Sasuga off the add-ons page but unlike other useragentswitchers I've used in the past, Sasuga is entirely manual, it doesn't even tell you what the current user agent is, it's just a blank textbox to input the user agent you want. I guess I'll have to look-up such a user agent string.

yeah, no matter what I put in there it still blocks me. strange, it can't be by IP, because my phone gets through. I tried using a mobile user agent string, it still access denied me. I'm lost as to working around this.